VVS Health and Wellness Day teaches basics of self-defense, safety

Students learn basics at Health and Wellness Day

Verona >> Vernon-Verona-Sherril Middle School students got an opportunity to learn about self defence, safety and nutrition at this year’s Health and Wellness Day.

VVS social worker Christina Ballard organized the event this year, setting up a half-day of activities and demonstrations for students in the district. She brought a number of presenters, including Ron German from CRC talking about substance abuse, John Strickler and Beth Zecher giving personal safety demonstrations, the Oneida County Health Department providing a presentation on nutrition and Thomas Murphy from Sweethearts and Heroes presented his anti-bullying message. Ballard said this is the biggest the event has gotten and she was glad to be part of the program.

“Basically, we are trying to provide students with some education that is outside of the normal school routine,” Ballard said. “It’s good to do something like this. I think it’s important to provide some basic instruction in subjects that we can’t cover everyday in their classes.”

John Strickler and Beth Zecher teach fitness classes at Chittenango Zumba and said they started providing self-defense lessons after the attack on Lori Bresnahan and a 10-year-old girl at Great Northern Mall last year.

“Recently, violence has come very close to our communities, like what happened at Great Northern Mall,” said Strickler. “That incident and others like it can be prevented in the future if people have the right knowledge about self-defense.”

Strickler, a retired police officer, said the number one thing kids don’t understand is that if they are with a parent who’s attacked, they should attempt to run for help and not stay and fight.

“We teach self-defense classes for people of all ages,” Stricker said.

“We want everyone to be safe,” Zecher said. “We’re here free today and offer free courses for senior citizens from time to time as well. Anyone can do it. My 75-year-old mother can do this.”

Strickler said he teaches a number of techniques for kids, including “stomp the bug” which is stepping on an attacker’s foot with force, or “beat the drum” which is a forceful push into an attacker’s stomach. He said for smaller kids, the best technique is often to drop to the ground, grab hold of the attacker’s leg, and scream something like “this isn’t my dad,” or “help, I don’t know this person.”

“A major point of all of this is awareness,” Strickler said. “Often, if victims were more aware of their surroundings, most attacks can be avoided.”

“It’s so necessary, almost more necessary than I want to admit to myself at times,” Zecher said. “I used to live in a dream world were everything was safe, but that’s not the case. It took what happened last year for me to take John seriously and start offering and taking self-defense courses.”

The two offer self-defense and other fitness courses at Chittenango Zumba & Fitness at the Town of Sullivan Parks and Recreation Office. For more information on their programs, visit their facebook page.